Orange County governments have awarded more than 40 exclusive contracts worth some $4.5 billion to private trash haulers – most without ever opening the process to competitive bidding – even though local experience and scholarly studies show that competition can dramatically slash rates. The overwhelming majority of that trash business – some $3 billion worth – is tied up in what’s poetically termed “evergreen” agreements. These agreements never really expire and can renew into perpetuity, guaranteeing haulers a constant flow of dollars and millions in profits, virtually worry-free. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, the highest residential trash rates in Orange County are paid by folks in cities with those long-term evergreen contracts that have never been put to bid, including Placentia ($22.66 per month), Stanton ($21.09), Anaheim ($19.90), Yorba Linda ($19.56) and Huntington Beach ($19.39). Continue reading→

Last May, the Fountain Valley City Council did the right thing by notifying city residents of an upcoming increase in trash hauling fees, partly by long-time provider Rainbow Environmental Services. On paper, it didn’t seem much — $18.16 to $18.84 (+3.7%) for a single-family home. Their last increase was in 2011, but there might be some pushback in this normally quiet and well-run community as the Council also recently approved a not-insignificant hike in water rates. The total annual value of only residential trash hauling for Fountain Valley is estimated at $3.3 million.

Rainbow’s not run by dummies — they’ve likely mitigated the increase to keep peace, cover landfill hikes, protect their “evergreen” arrangement with the city and avoid the few good-government malcontents who believe that competitive bidding is in order to see if another hauler can do a better deal. Nowhere in the Staff Report or the Public Notice is open competition for the business mentioned or listed as an alternative for the city to consider — a major failing in staff work. The City Council will hear the issue Tuesday next at 6pm at their regular meeting at 10200 Slater Ave. Continue reading→

With Elon Musk’s announcement of a far more technically sophisticated and purportedly faster and cheaper alternative to California’s High-Speed Rail “Browndoggle”, the city of Anaheim has a blockbuster opportunity to look at how this 21st century technology could positively impact its resort and convention business. Continue reading→

Fountain Valley Republican Assembly President John W. Briscoe was elected President lead the California Republican Assembly as President this afternoon at the CRA’s Burlingame convention. The vote was 84-78.

The most impactful Blog in Orange County is going on a long, if not permanent hiatus per this mid-afternoon post from Tony Bushala. Tony and colleagues like Travis Kiger, and a host of other anonymous posters and commentors spent the last few years turning Fullerton on its ear with their activism and coverage of city politics that ran circles around the mainstream media and set a standard that the rest of us admired and, frankly, envied.

The FFFF played a national role in revealing the murder-by-cop death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with mental issues. Three BAD cops are no longer on the Fullerton Police force (and likely destined for jail) due to FFFF’s diligence and the copious reporting they committed to the blogosphere. They caused the retirement of Fullerton’s feckless police chief and revealed plenty about this gang of nasty, violent cops that often ruled the city with fists and billy clubs. Tony and Travis were frequent guests on KFI’s John and Ken Show — that’s rare, and even rarer that they convinced this drive-time program with over one million daily listeners to come down to Fullerton for multiple events spawned by the Thomas killing.